Visitors from the Apollo Proton Cancer Center, India at WPE

Experts also travel from far away to learn from the experiences and developments at WPE and to be inspired for their own projects. Last June, , we had a visit from India, from the Apollo Proton Cancer Center in Chennai. This large coastal city in south-eastern India is home to nearly 5 million people. Radiation oncologist Dr. Sapna Nangia and medical physicist Dayananda Sharma joined us along with an IBA expert, Claude Dupont, to exchange ideas with our experts. The Apollo Proton Cancer Center is also equipped with an IBA proton therapy system, which includes 2 Gantries and 1 Fixed Beam Line. Patients have been treated there since 2019 and was, during four years  the only proton therapy facility in South East Asia. The layout is very similar to our facility.

Fixed-Beam-Line

The main focus of the visit was the upcoming commissioning of the fixed beam line at the Apollo Center. The meeting was attended by our medical specialist Sarah Peters, the head of medical physics Xavier Vermeren and authorized Representative Kai Züger. They gave an overview of our initial preparations and measurements prior to the start-up of the Fixed-Beam-Line, as well as the patient mix spectrum at this therapy station in the WPE. In a Fixed-Beam room, no gantry moves around the patient, the proton beam comes out of the wall through a “fixed” beam tube – i.e. it is rigid. This makes the technical possibilities of the table movements and the patient positioning particularly important. At WPE, we treat tumors for which we can achieve perfect tumor irradiation by table rotations, e.g. by using lateral or also multiple, so-called non-coplanar fields. For our prostate patients, for example, this room is very suitable, as we can achieve optimal protection of the bladder and intestine with lateral radiation directions. Furthermore, brain tumors that lie very close to the upper skull can be treated excellently at the Fixed-Beam Line. Here, the proton beam can be directed to the target through the non-coplanar fields and largely avoids exposure of the healthy brain or other areas of the head.  

It was an interesting and lively exchange. We hope that we could help to improve the quality of treatment for many cancer patients in Southeast Asia. And we also took a lot from the discussion. Dear Apollo Center, thank you very much for the great discussions and good luck with the start-up of the Fixed-Beam Line!